By Richard Laermer
I have had a lot of opportunities in the last year where I can talk to PR people while I hype my book. On book tours I was consistently amazed -- not in a good way -- how
folks in PR talk about PR.
I found out what practitioners, in fact, think are the problems in making successful headway in what is often a complicated business. Why, I wondered, did these people get into
it anyway? Was it the job that was offered? Those who work in PR do it for one of four reasons. Choose which one matches your employees or colleagues. There will be a quiz
later:
- They feel they understand the connection between business and promotion/exposure
- They see themselves as great communicators with keen knowledge of how the media works
- They want to speak in non-marketing terms and get sales up by creating finite messages for businesses or people or products
- The Gap wasn't hiring
When mostly younger folks - plus a few veterans - talked the mundane talk when it came to PR, I began to fantasize what would happen if suddenly there was no need for Public
Relations as an industry. Would 20-something-wannabes have a place to go if PR was suddenly found to be unnecessary? Besides being a Starbucks barista?
A lot of young folks are simply waiting for inspiration to hit them re: what job they want to go find. They are ostensibly waiting tables at our offices, doing simply what
they're told and being dispassionate about the day-to-day.
I know what you're thinking - how long did that take to figure out? But remember how, during the dot-com craze, turnover was so rapid and pace of clients and results was so
huge? For four quick and dirty years I never pondered the "why" of my personnel -- or anyone in PR.
How do you get a job in PR? You talk big. You promise things. You say you can, sure. You use lots of marketing jargon. You seem aggressive and proffer a level of oomph.
Recently, my firm hired and fired someone who would have made a successful Starbucks manager because he knew how to smile and take tips, but not much else. I'm fairly sure if I
grabbed one of his previous job applications he gabbed about how much of a "people person" he was. That defines who'd get the first boot if PR unfortunately winds down as a
service.
Here's a fun game: Next time you're bored in a staff meeting survey the people around the table on why they "chose" PR. You'll know immediately who is in it for the long haul.
You will recognize who deserves your coveted love and attention.
Here then are the silliest comments PR types told me during a year when I became convinced that PR people aren't as dedicated to the job as they profess. [Editorial messages
mine.]
Any of these pearls of wisdom sound familiar?
Is there a secret to getting ink?
If you're in PR, you obviously know you need to be really passionate about the work or don't bother. Ask yourself:
- Does your company have news?
- Do you have clear messaging?
- What are you looking to achieve?
"Sales" isn't PR.
Sales and PR are the same: different techniques, but all reach the goal of The Close.
What do I do when the
[messages] about my client are all dried up?
Never happens. You have to work with PR to reach inside the company and pull out the story. Use mental pliers if you have to.
How do you get a product to - "like" -- suddenly appear in the media?
It ain't magic. You have got to be able to distill it to within an inch of its life (it = message).
After that, you got to know who to go to. And then stay on it. Keep it up. This isn't a one-step process, nor is it a one-man show. Remember that the time to develop compelling
story angles is...yesterday.
Why are reporters so rude?!
Reporters would give anything--anything--for a juicy story. If you think yours is - but it's not -- they will "film and glaze," or shut down completely. That's not rudeness.
It's the sound of your company wasting its equity.
My clients are tired--is there an easy way to rejuvenate them?
Make sure you are as happy with the product you're selling as you are with the concept of press coming your way.
Our customers like being a big secret. I'm okay with that.
Don't be proud of this. In the 00's it is purely sad. Good PR is not difficult: You need to start locally and see how it goes. After that, well, read my book. Heh heh: PR,
baby.
I'm dumbfounded. I sent a hundred pitches out so we could get three hits.
Try sending that pitch to three extremely targeted reporters; it wastes less time and spares trees.
As for that quiz, if you got this far you get an automatic A+. Rest assured those who murmur the above only glance at anything past the Funny Pages. Gee. That's what they're
doing now.
Richard Laermer is CEO of RLM PR and co-host of "Taking Care of Business," which premieres October 16 at 10 p.m. ET, on TLC. The paperback version of 'Full Frontal PR' will be
released in September..